Martinsburg independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1875-1900, 1887-12-10
HUNTING ELEPHANTS.
EXCITING ADVENTURES WITH THE

Camp Raided at Night by an Enraged
"Solitaire.P
There was period of three years when l
was regularly employed by an English house
at Zanzibar to hunt for ivory, and was
fitted out in the most liberal manner and
permitted to go in any direction inland. The
main object was to secure tus1s, and sent
enough of them to Zanzibar to seemingly
supply the markets of the world for fifty
years. Something is written every day Of
the tame elephants-the big, good natured
beasts of the circus and zoolo cal gardens
but very little is written of the wild Ones /
had opportunity to study them under all
sorts of circumstances, and have never been
satisfied with the accounts given by hunters
and naturalists. In my opinion the elephant
in his native pastures is the keenest shrewdest
and most intelligent of all animals. He has
more courage than the lion, more ferocity
than the tiger and more cunning than the
fox Only man is match for him, and it
must be pretty intelligent man, too.
/ started in the business of elephant hunt
ing with the idea that only had to look up
drove of the beasts and begin shooting,
but / soon discovered that / was laboring I'M
der a mistake l have never seen any refer
ence made in print to the powers of vision
possessed by wild elephants. Nature endows
all wild creatures with extra keen eyesight,
but l believe the elephant can see further
than any other four footed animal l had an
instance of this in my first trip out.
Six of us were scattered through wood in
search of signs of the presence of elephants,
when SOLITARY" sneaked out of Jungle
1
my horse was two miles away, but one of
the natives saw the performance. He said
the elephant broke cover as stealthily as
man, carefully approached the horse, and
was only few yards away when discovered;
then he trumpeted and made rush His
sudden appearance seemed to strike the
horse with terror, and he made no
move to escape. The great trunk, held aloft
as the beast charged, struck the horse ''side
wipe" and knocked him fiat, and he
was no sooner down than the elephant knelt
upon him and kneaded him into bloody pulp.
When his vengeance was satisfied he rose up
and retreated to the same thicket, sneaking
along as if he was seeking to hide his trail.
1t was an hour later when reached the spot,
and / was SO angry over the death of my
steed that nothing the men could say would
stop me from entering the thicket in search
of the destroyer. Joe followed me, bearing
a gun, and both of us were ready for any
trick the beast might be up to; but we were
too late. We found the spot where he had
stood for hours, and from which he had sal
lied out to attack the horse, but he had
quietly sneaked off. The elephant, when pur-
suing an ordinary course through the forest,
leaves broad trail behind him He breaks
down branches, uproots small trees and the
prints of his big feet could be followed ON
horseback at gallop. This fellow had gone
off so softly that we were half an hour in
picking up his trail There was not broken
branch and he had set his feet down with the
utmost care and selected the hardest SOIL
After getting a quarter of a mile away he
had selected rocky ridge to travel on, and
we soon lost him entirely
Our camp was about three miles from the
spot where the horse was killed We always
had one guard and couple of fires, and as
there was only the wild beasts to look out
for, we had slept in perfect content On this
night, soon after midnight, the guard awoke
me and stated that some danger menaced the
camp. He had heard what he believed was
a body of men lurking about, and the bull
locks seemed greatly excited. The camp was
aroused as quietly as possible, the fires were
allowed to burn low, and in a short time the
statements of the sentinel were verified.
Somebody or something was lurking about
We were in the lion country, but the move
ments were too heavy for the king of beasts
The noise passed clear around the camp and
back, and then all was quiet We were under
arms for half an hour, and then, all being
still, we lay down, and all but the sentinel
were soon asleep. An hour later, as
the old solitary of the day charged into
our camp, trumpeting like the blasty
from locomotive, and evidently in a great
rage. 1t was he who had been lurking about
for two or three hours. He had approached
the camp as carefully as man could walk,
and had passed around it TO locate every
thing and decide on a point to charge from
When we got the alarm, he placed himself in
the shadow Of some bushes, and the natives,
who examined the spot, said he stood there
for an hour and half without moving q
foot
Bloody and destructive work followed the
charge of the elephant. He stepped on and
crushed a sleeping native, picked a second
up and dashed him to the earth corpse, and
broke the back of third who was trying to
get out of his way lie was soon among the
bullocEs, knocking them right and left with
his terrible blows, and just then got my
gun ready. His charge had been SO sudden
and fierce that we were all demoralized for
two or three minutes. Fortunately for us
all, some one had the sense to throw light
brush on one Of the dying fires and started
q big blaze. This seemed to disconcert tho
elephant, and he showed signs of retreating.
In this he was encouraged by two of our bull
locks, who dashed at him for fight, and
raked him severely with their stout horns
was dancing about, waiting TO set shot,
and III tell you what | saw that elephant do.
He picked up a bullock weighing at least 800
pounds, and that with his trunk alone, and
swung him aloft as easily as you can lift an
axe over your head lie held him in the air
a minute, and then flung him clean over our
Cape Colony wagon to the ground. The
bull alighted on large heap of freshly cut
grass, and was but little injured. l opened